Forced Laborers in the Church

Forced laborers were utilized in the Inner Mission in particular. As a substantial number of the males from the Inner Mission’s estimated 70,000 employees were conscripted into military service, the organization availed itself of the only labor force available, forced laborers. Normally, they came from the occupied territories in the East (Poland, Ukraine and Russia) and were primarily set to work in agriculture, horticulture and housekeeping.

Approximately 100,000 foreigners – above all young women – are estimated to have been employed in the Protestant church. That corresponds to approximately one percent of the estimated twelve million forced laborers. While they were probably better off than the forced laborers put to work in industry, everyday racism nonetheless constituted the basis of a system of differentiated treatment of foreign civilian laborers, here as well (Kaiser, Zwangsarbeit, 250).